Restaurant deck falls into Cohasset Cove

COHASSET – Dining al fresco won’t be an option for the foreseeable future at the Olde Salt House on Border Street.

The restaurant’s patio, which sits on a seawall made of granite, collapsed into the ocean on Tuesday night after years worth of erosion.

“It’s been deteriorating for some time and it went in yesterday,” said Building Commissioner Robert Egan. “We’ll be fencing it off to make sure nobody can go near it and get hurt.”

Fire Chief Robert Silvia said residents called Harbormaster Lorren Gibbons to first report that the wall was falling. She then called the fire department, who responded and placed caution tape around the area. That was at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and different parts of the wall have continued to fall since.

“Since then, with the two subsequent tides, more has fallen in, so at this point we are looking at putting up something more substantial to keep people safe, like maybe a chain link fence,” Silvia said. “It could obviously be compromising other parts of the structure.”

There were a number of small boats about 10 feet from the dock when it first started to fall, but they have since been moved and Silvia doesn’t think any were damaged.

The Olde Salt House is a seasonal restaurant and “upscale clam shack.” After being sold last year, it opened for the first time under new owner Gerd Ordelheide in September 2016. It had not yet reopened this year.

“Because it was deteriorating, this office sent them a notice that they couldn’t open until it was fixed, and they just never got around to it,” Egan said. “The sand fill just eroded over time and the granite itself collapsed.”

Cohasset resident Jack Silvia lives across the street from the Olde Salt House. He said he first noticed one side of the deck falling at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and that by the time he came out after high tide on Wednesday the entire thing had collapsed. The corner closest to the harbor collapsed first.

“They were kind of negligent with this lately, I don’t know if they should have been filling it with concrete or what,” he said. “Every time the tide comes in, it washes a little more away.”

Low tides on Thursday will happen at about 10:10 a.m. and 10:35 p.m.

“High tide doesn’t seem to be the issue, but low tide when all the water goes back out. I’m far from an engineer, but it seems like the water is coming in and weakening the structure, then low tide is taking parts out,” Silvia said.

Gibbons said it was Ordelheide’s responsibility to remove all the rubble from Cohasset Cove, likely by hiring a private company.

“He is moving forward with that and he has contacted some experts,” Egan said.